Lean KPI's - Key Performance Indicators and performance metrics

At times they may not be tangible measures, and can take different names, or be specific to a process or industry, but their goal to explain performance is essentially the same. Most managers, operations consultants and process improvement leaders will have a wide variety of KPI’s and metrics which explain the performance of a business, operating strategy, supply chain strategy or manufacturing facility. Andon systems can be used to communicate KPI’s to production employees throughout a production plant. Although measuring performance and deriving it into its key drivers is beneficial in order to see what is happening or not happening , it is what we do with the results of this analysis what’s really important. As a line manager once said “It’s not just about data collection and analysis, but what you do with it”. Most managers and engineers can get caught up in the analysis part and fall short in both deriving strategies to improve and implementing these. This can also be the case, albeit a much costlier one, with using consultants and failing to carry through the action plan.
In the following pages below we define some of the most popular process, and business metrics which can help evaluate the current performance of your business, productive process, or value stream. These metrics can be applied to many types of businesses and organizations: